hopi's gone. she left to start her new life yesterday afternoon. after three weeks of nobody wanting her it came down to two people racing to get here to have first chance yesterday. jim, who was representing two elderly ladies who were having to give up a cat they'd grown attached to, but ended up already having an owner, had been trying for a day and a half to come over and see hopi. he called early yesterday afternoon to say he couldn't make it over, but maybe in the evening. about a half hour later a woman named adrienne called to ask about hopi, she had seen a flyer at the getty, where she worked. I told her she was welcome to come look and mentioned that jim was also interested, but that he hadn't made it over and I felt that first come first serve was the only strategy that made sense. she was driving from the getty and I gave her directions. after I got off the phone with her, I figured I might as well call jim, so that I wouldn't have to tell him when he called later, "oh, too late, I gave her to somebody else." it never dawned on me he would say that he'd be right over.

so both were driving to my place at the same time and there was no way for me to tell adrienne, because I hadn't thought to get her number. as it turned out, adrienne called to confirm the directions from oceanpark and main, so I had a chance to explain the situation to her. while I was with her on the phone, jim arrived. hopi disappeared under the bed, not being anxious to deal with strangers. jim and I talked in the living room for a few minutes. adreienne arrived and I chased hopi out into the front of the apartment. she wasn't anxious to deal with new people. eventually jim deferred to adrienne partly because he was representing others and partly because he thought maybe hopi was a bit too skittish for the old ladies. adrienne seemed very happy with hopi, who eventually acquiesced enough to let herself be held for a few minutes. adrienne said that hopi reminded her of a cat she'd had when she was sixteen.

whew! so that was over. it feels great to work with the sliding door open again. I miss hopi a little, but really this place and my life are just not conducive to having a cat.

that was the big news from yesterday. the day was spent optimizing scans from the burlap sketchbook (example above right__ notice it's dated 4 years ago tomorrow). making progress, but a lot to do. I listened to an audiobook about the history of afghanistan while working on that. today will be more of the same. I'm working on the new burlap painting and might cut down some more of the burlap roll today, so I can do more.

played chess with bruce and lucy, played scrabble with lucy, talked with michelle on the phone, talked with susan during and after the hopi thing, she offered to fly me out to visit her in hawaii, which sounds great, but I foolishly feel so all in the middle of things here that I can't see how I could get away... but I'm thinkin' about it. more phonecalls with michelle. ali was gonna come over to show me the telescope, but had an unexpected dance class, so maybe tonight, michelle was gonna come over to watch the rest of the weeds shows, but then ali (the other one) called needing a ride from the airport. aliza called a couple times trying to decide whether to go away for the weekend shows in vegas, her cold is lingering and so it might not be a good idea, but then she'd miss out... I didn't have much advice, could see it both ways.

felt kinda lonely later and after making game moves with lucy ended up surfing blogs, wrote a response to a guy named slade who was asking for an explanation about why people are against the war and would want the US to pull out. I rambled on more than was probably necessary... it's interesting how some things that are so clear to some of us can be so obscure to others... and vice versa, it's all about point of view...

coffeeshop this morning, nothing much goin' on, read the paper___ same ol stuff really. chicago won the world series, some people are excited about that, I really don't care much, don't even know who they were playing__ astros? whatever. harriet miers looks doomed, ironically by the right... wonder who will be next. some people died in iraq and israel, the president of iran wants to wipe israel off the map. the UN screwed up the job of monitoring the oil for food fiasco, annan's gonna catch some blame, which is a drag because I like him.

alright, time to get productive.